Mexico’s Ciudad Universitaria and the foreign gaze (1951-1968)

Abstract

Ciudad Universitaria in Mexico City was widely disseminated in international magazines during the years in which it was built, inaugurated and first occupied. The foreign gaze confronted another way of constructing modernity at a time in which the accepted models were coming to be questioned. The artistic solutions of the buildings that used the technique of “plastic integration” provoked a true avalanche of in-depth articles, reviews and updates in the primary architectural magazines of Europe and the United States. Discussions on its social impact, the monumental scale of the complex and the innovative urban design of this exceptional work were marginalized. The foreign gaze was focused on the local, emphasizing those regional values that fortified the paradigm of modern Mexican architecture.